Holiday Rundown

I really had a great Christmas.  Laura Beth and I did a lot of going.  It was great though.  It has been over ten days since I last posted - so here are some highlights.

• I have seen this product advertised on TV about six billion times in the last two days.  At first - I thought “SWEET” and then I realized it removes “heavy metal.”  I can’t have that.
• If you know me - you know that I don’t wear shoes.  My wife gave me a pair of “pseudo-shoes” for Christmas.  The tag actually says that they are not shoes -they’re sandals.  All I know is that they are comfortable.
• Freedom was pretty awesome on Christmas Eve Eve (the day ‘eve’ of Christmas Eve).  It seemed packed.  I mean we usually have a good many people in there - but for the first time, it seemed like we were pretty full.
• I went to NewSpring on Christmas Eve.  They never seize to amaze me.
• This may be sad - but I made my first ever real grilled cheese sandwich on Saturday.  Actually, I made two.  Mine was burnt - LB’s was pretty much perfect.  Then I made two more last night.
• Laura Beth is sick.  We have consumed a lot of soup.
• World Changers is going to be awesome this year.
• Go Camp is going to be awesome this year.
• I am getting ready for and planning messages and (hopefully a bunch of) events for 2008.

Life is really good.  God has really blessed me this year.  I will be talking about how he has rocked my world in ‘07 and what I resolve to do in ‘08.

God provides - who knew?

Since Ben is on tour, I have been having to have someone fill in on Wednesday nights leading worship.  My buddy Tadd had been doing it - but a job conflict came up and he was unable to help me this week.  This is about how my day went yesterday.

7:00 AM - Beau sends me a text message.  Beau has a family get together, so he cannot come and lead worship for me. Crap.

8:00 AM - I send Facebook messages to Adam Johnson asking him if he could help me out. Please, please, please!

11:00 AM - Still worship leaderless - I write a blog and say - “God will provide?”  I am freaking out right now!

12:00 PM - I get in touch with Kent.  Kent says he can do it.  God provided.  Wow!

As I typed this out - I realize that it doesn’t look as stressful or as scary as it actually was.  But honestly - I had no idea what was going to happen.  I didn’t know where to turn.  I was thinking “God - are you going to hook me up?  When are you going to provide?”  My prayer and my thinking changed after I talked with Kent.  My crappy doubting attitude showed my true colors.  My prayer was something along the lines of - “God - of course you provide.  Of course, You are faithful.  Why would you change now?  God, thanks.”

It is so easy for us to question God when face the first sign of trouble - or the second or third.  However - God allowed Abraham to get all the way up on the mountain and have his son Isaac tied down before he provided a ram in the thicket.  God is faithful.  I am appreciative that He reminded me.

How has God provided for you in a time of need? 

Sorry

It has been a week since I have even wanted to blog. I feel like a lot has happened in my life. I don’t really know why I haven’t been posting. For all who are wondering, and I did get a few questions about this - last Wednesday went pretty well, I think. I really felt like God did all the speaking. It was one of those times in which you just let go and see what happens. The music was great - my old roommate in college led us in worship. I am really excited and very nervous about tonight. I think that God has given me a message again. He just takes my fingers and guides me as I type it out - but I don’t know if we are even going to have music tonight. I don’t know what I am going to do about that. God will provide?

In other news - I switched to Mozilla. I am already very happy about it. My finger is about the same - except for the fact that it doesn’t hurt. Check this post on Sammy’s blog - that kid has a huge heart. Finally - this game was a childhood dream of mine - find out more at LINC tonight.

God is good

About a week ago, Craig Groeschel had this post.  Craig’s blog is awesome and one of the few that I read on a daily basis.  It really spoke to me tonight as I was driving home from LINC.  Lesson #9 reallly spoke to me.  God called me because He is good - not because I am.

I will do my best to follow God and do what He tells me to do - but I don’t need to worry about being good.  God is the good one in our relationship.  God’s goodness can show in my life - but God is the good one.

Good Morning

Check out this post from Jay.  In case people are wondering - Jay is one of the people in charge of Go Camp (Go Camp is taking the place of X-Fuge or Centrifuge for our students this summer).

 Give Jay some love.

It’s just like a mini mall

Tadd showed me this a few weeks ago.  Please enjoy.

Excited about Wednesday

I am very excited about Wednesday night.  Ben is out of town - so a friend of mine, Tadd Tatum, will be leading worship for us.  It should be pretty exciting.  Also, I am talking about the crucifixion of Jesus.  I am nervous about that part.  I don’t like being nervous.  I really don’t like admitting that I am nervous when I am doing something like talking to students about Jesus.  For one thing - I don’t want it to seem like I am nervous because I am “trying to please men.”  Although that seems super-spiritual, I don’t want to get caught up in trying to please people.  The real reason I get nervous is because I know that what I talk about matters.  I know that God has put these things on my heart for a reason.  My job is to relay what God has told me to say, but Jesus’ death, and all that goes with it, is the most important thing that I could possibly talk about.  So my nervousness stems from wanting to please God and impact students as God would have me to.

With that being said, I am kind of struggling with the message.  The topic is going to be something along the lines of - Jesus was arrested, beaten, tried, and crucified for us.  All that went into Jesus’ death was done so that every human being would have a chance at life.  I struggle with the idea of can I stop there?  Can I really talk about salvation and Jesus’ death with out including the resurrection?  I know how I feel about the two - and I think that is why I feel like I can stop.  But I guess I have never thought about a salvation message and whether or not the resurrection needed to be included.  Let me know what you think.

And - enjoy this video.  And - if you are a student reading this, bring your lost friends to hear the Gospel.

Free Will

I have a bit of  a confession to make.  I read science fiction novels.  I know - it is probably the dorkiest and most uncool thing that I do.  I am secure though.  I love Orson Scott Card.  In his book Xenocide, there is an interesting conversation between two of the main characters.  The topic of free will comes up and the following is an excerpt from the conversation. 

“Even if there is no such thing as free will, we have to treat each other as if there were free will in order to live together in society.  Because otherwise, every time somebody does something terrible, you can’t punish him, because he can’t help it, because his genes or his environment or God made him do it, and every time somebody does something good, you can’t honor him, because he was a puppet, too.  If you think that everybody around you is a puppet, why bother talking to them at all?  Why even try to plan anything or create anything, since everything you plan or create or desire or dream of is just acting out the script your puppeteer built into you.”

By no means do I want to get into this debate, but I think this is an interesting viewpoint.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?